27 January 2004

PM rushes to Kalam for dissolution on Feb 6

to direct Election Commission immediately

From Jal Khambata

NEW DELHI: The Union Cabinet Tuesday night recommended to the President to dissolve the Lok Sabha on February 6 and order fresh elections.

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee immediately drove down to the Rashtrapati Bhawan to give the Cabinet's one-line resolution to President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam that can enable him to direct the Election Commission to start the poll process right from February 6.

He was accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani, NDA convener George Fernandes and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj. They told the President that the vote-on-account would be passed by February 5 and then he can dissolve the House.

The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Government wants the new Lok Sabha to be constituted before April end which would be possible only if the Election Commission keeps the timetable ready to announce it the day the House is dissolved.

Sushma Swaraj, who announced the Cabinet decision at a Press conference after the PM had handed over the resolution to the President, said there was no other agenda for the Cabinet meeting and the decision to advise the President to dissolve the House on February 6 was taken within minutes.

She claimed that the Government was bound to tell Parliament why it had convened a brief session of Parliament and why it is bringing a vote-on-account for the government expenditure and as such it was imperative to decide about the dissolution of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha.

Sushma Swaraj said the Government did not want to recommend dissolution before the Republic Day celebrations, particularly because of the foreign dignitory being present in the capital as the chief guest. "We did not want to dissolve the House when the foreign dignitory is here," she said. (It is another matter that Brazil President is still in the capital when the Cabinet met and decided about the dissolution.)

Simultaneous Assembly elections will be held in Andhra Pradesh and Orissa since the assembly in the first state was dissolved much earlier by Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu while the coalition of the Biju Janata Dal and Bhartiya Janata Party on Tuesday decided to hold the Assembly polls in Orissa a year in advance.

The Government could have waited for approaching the President for dissolving the Lok Sabha after the brief session of Parliament ends on February 5 but it was felt the President can direct the Election Commission to set its machinery into motion for the polls immediately once the dissolution recommendation lands in his hand, the BJP sources said.

Vajpayee has notified the President about dissolution of the Lok Sabha by submitting him the Cabinet's recommendation and the President can in turn notify the Election Commission forthwith to let the latter announce the elections the moment the Lok Sabha stands dissolved on February 6 or within one or two days.

Since the Election Commission would have otherwise taken at least a week to announce the elections, the government wanted to cut short this period. Elections can be held after 45 days of the announcement and hence the first round of polls may now take place as early as March 21 or 23.

CONG SPANNER: Vajpayee also sought to remove any doubts that may have crept in Kalam's mind from two separate letters dashed out from the Congress to point out that the practice of the President addressing the first session of Parliament every calendar year had been sabotaged to suit the government.

Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh wrote to the President separately as the Opposition leaders in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha respectively protesting at the government deliberately not proroguing the two Houses to deny the President his right to address the joint session of Parliament.

Sushma Swaraj was at pains to explain why Parliament was not prorogued and pointing out that the brief session that begins on Thursday was only the second part of the winter session.

The Cabinet met just briefly for few minutes to adopt the resolution for the elections. It could start the meeting a bit late but immediately after Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani was back from his tour of the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir and drove straight to the PM's House for the meeting.

The Government sources said Vajpayee also briefed the President about the brief session of Parliament convened from Thursday to get the necessary financial business cleared for running the government smoothly until the new government takes the reins and brings a regular budget.

It was explained that the formal communication of the decision to dissolve the Lok Sabha had to be submitted to the President to justify the vote-on-account to be taken from Parliament on February 3.

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